AWP(enis)

So I went to AWP, which is this giant writer's conference that somehow attracts hundreds of people who run the gamut of serious, legitimate, Pulitzer-winning writers to just really depressing people who can't put two words together. The latter are the blood-suckers who go from table to table and try to peddle their manuscripts to anyone who will look them in the eye.

The conference has three components: 1. a huge huge book fair where magazines, presses, MFA programs etc set up tables for people to purchase/inquire/peruse. 2. A slew of panels which involve some really cool (and often some not-so-cool) writers etc. 3. Readings that happen off-site and all the cool kids go to and get drunk at.

On the final day of AWP, I attended a panel with women publishers who started their own magazines or presses. As the women went down the line, one of the women shared a story from the AWP conference this year. She was sitting at her journal's booth and making friendly with her neighbors. One of the tables next to her had three men in their 30s, all of whom had helped found the table's press. One of them was a graduate of her MFA program (at a different time). She complimented them on their books -- how beautiful they were, and spoke to the fellow alum about how exciting it was that two graduates from their program went into publishing and seemed to be doing pretty well for themselves. One of the men then asked her how she felt about the word "panties." The woman publisher immediately thought of how she interacted with this word when reading manuscripts -- she hated the word, hated it when men used it in their writing, and generally thought it was problematic from an editorial standpoint. She began to relay this to the man, when he stopped her to explain he is recently divorced, and that he was trying to find the appropriate, well-liked word for underwear when telling women to take them off. He wanted to know if she liked it when a man told her to take off her "panties"...This provoked an ire in me that has been dormant for some time. The kind of blood boiling, near-tears ire saved for only the most special of offenses. I suppose it is because of the intelligence and grace of the woman, attempting to take part in a discourse with men who have no desire to engage with any woman beyond the sexual.

Though she had the decency to omit the name of this press, I did some research and, I believe, found the culprits: Birds, LLC. Fuck those guys.